sumo sumo sumo sumo sumo
January, 2007
Well, the World Championships are over and we have all seen the film.......
Many congratulations to Adele Jones. I was not able to include this info up till now because I did not want to spoil the documentary for you all. She trained hard, fought hard and cried hard!!!!!!!!!!!!! Her Silver Medal in the prestigious Open Weight category was well deserved and if she had of beaten the Russian in the final it would have been nothing short of miraculous. However, I KNOW she can beat the Big Ruski but after the epic semi-final againt the Huge Dutch girl her physical reserves were naturally drained. This Davina and Goliath battle lasted a good three minutes and several times Adele came back from the brink of disaster. WHAT A PERFORMANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sharran will have learned from the experience and if Pink starts to listen and keep her gob shut she'll also win major honours at International level.
KatyH was disappointed but had a very good victory and will be able to tell her pupils the story for years to come. Katy is strong enough to succeed if she wants it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Big Jackie was a rock.
Surprisingly, Sumo Steve placed 5th in the Openweight category.....by the time the Bronze medal final came around he was just shattered and was putty in the hands of the big Mongolian. Still........fifth place in the World Championships is not a bad result. The British team also managed to beat the Italians and this was a good result as our Mediterranean friends are no pushover. We will probably go to their event in Milan later this year. We do need to strengthen the men's team and this means the boys will have to shape up or SHIP OUT!!!!! But is there any new blood out there with any bottle????? Sadly there is a lot of talk but that's how far it goes.......c'est la vie...I am afraid we are turning into a nation of softies.
Sad because when I think back to the days of the real hard men......they would have leapt at the chance....................
Once again, Mr. Mellor did a great job as a Judge.....one of a few non-Japanese who was allowed to officiate.
July 2006
We now have 25 ladies we are training up. All are doing extremely well.
May 2006
Kim and Steve did a nice little spot for Channel 5's Combat Club, a young persons' TV Saturday morning show that will go out in September. Kim is pictured here with a delightful young lady who wanted to know if her bum looked big in her tight leggings. Kim (an expert in the field and past master of the builder's bum look) after close examination stated emphatically that she had the perfect buttocks. Incidently Kim is available for deoderant adverts.
April 2006
We are now trying to strengthen our womens' Sumo and have a couple of new recruits who are showing some promise, especially a young lady from Newcastle.
Holland came over recently and we held a tournament that went very well. The Dutch stayed over and enjoyed a super training session on the Sunday morning.
We all enjoyed a night out on the town after the comp. Mr. Gadd treated us to an Indian that was a bit too hot for the winner of our Open Competition and World Middleweight Bronze medallist, Sabba. (Remind me to order him a vindaloo the night before the 2006 Osaka World Championships). I've never seen him move so fast.
Mr. Gadd returned our hospitality by inviting me to Holland and setting his monstrous dog, Figaro, on me. I'm bringing some nut crackers with me next time. I wouldn't mind but generally speaking animals love me.
Filming has now started for Channel 5's Combat Club and Sumo will be one of the episodes to be shown in September.
April 2005
Some lads came from all over the country for a try at Sumo and we finished up with a good competition. All the guys were graded to Green level (3rd Kyu).
March 2005
Channel 4's "The Games" went very well with the Sumo looking very good. Philip Oliver winning the Sumo Basho with a good Ashi Tori technique. Craig Charles was the runner-up but all the guys did well.
June 2004
Started training for the World Championships in Germany (October).
Kim Humphriss has started training up a new prospect, Paul Day. Sam Goddfrey has commenced training and fancies himself in the lightweights. He'll have to lose a few pounds and will have Emslie to contend with. Ian Benton of Beeston also could do well as a lightweight. Sandokan, another lightweight, is a keen man who is on a rigorous training schedule. Any other under 85 KG contenders out there I wonder???
May 2004
Steve Pateman appeared on Blue Peter and he has the badge to prove it!!! This has an audience of a few million youngsters.
King Edward V11 School in Sheffield proved very tough oposition for Steve when he wrestled about 300 of them during a visit to teach about Japan and its peole.. The youngsters loved it and their knowledge of Japanese is improving year by year..
April 2004
11 year old Sam Harper won the Leicestershire Youth Open Sumo competition. The basho was held at the Moira Miners Welfare Club. Sam looks like he will be a good prospect for the future and perhaps when he is a few years older we will be able to take him to European Junior competitions and, who knows?, perhaps he will visit Japan one day.
Everyone at Moira was fantastic...especially the young ladies who showed some good fighting spirit.
The big man from Nottingham, Ian Oliver, will start doing a little Sumo when his knee heals. Should make a good Sumotori (if he has the bottle!!!)
British Heya
Very shortly we will have two training camps. We have 24 hrs a day access to the new 10 by 11 metre Pirelli Dojo in Burton, but soon will have another place in Derby that we are currently refurbishing.
Sumo World Championships, 2004
These will be held in Riesa, Germany in October.
European World Championships, 2004
The date for these has not been confirmed yet...but possibly early May in Hungary..
Sumo World Cup, 2003
This was truly a super competition, well run by the organisers and the enthusiastic crowd were rewarded with some spectacular Sumo.
Great Britain fought well and Big Jackie, 127 KG, won a well deserved Silver medal. She narrowly missed out on the Gold losing by inches to the Bulgarian champion. Big Jackie pushed her opponent to the edge of the Dohyo and almost secured victory but a last ditch effort from the Bulgarian resulted in both wrestlers crashing to the clay surface with, unfortunately, our girl hitting the deck a split second before her opponent. Congratulations to the Bulgarian.
Big Jackie will learn from the experience and will come back stronger than ever in 2004.
The competition included competitors from USA, South Africa and 20 countries in total took part.
As usual the Brits had a fantastic time from the moment they left Blighty. Pateman, Laing and Mellor economised by sharing a room. But could the 20 stone wrestlers Pateman and Laing get any sleep? No, not with all the snoring 12 stone Kevan Mellor was doing. No wonder we got our backsides kicked when it came to the actual fighting. He will have to have a room on his own next time.
The hotel was great (65 euros a night for a double, 75 for a triple) and we managed to find a couple of good restaurants. Pateman won the rib eating contest with no trouble at all but Bates came in a disappointing last place with a pathetic performance (2 loaves of garlic bread as an appetizer ruined her appetite but came in handy breathing over competitors).
World War Three broke out in the hotel room when Mr. Mellor lost the Squat Thrust competition. Over a few drinks during the evening meal he claimed to be able to bang out 60 in a minute no trouble (Pateman claimed he could do 30 and Laing 40).
When he eventually got around to doing them (after much posturing and no, i'm not ready yets), Mr. Mellor actually amassed a total of 31 (thirty-one) claiming a friction burn to his big toe for his lack lustre performance. Pateman did a relaxed 62 and Laing an easy 50 something. In all honesty I could have done 70.
BUT....was Mr. Mellor having it???? No!!! Apparently he deserved another go, and, well, I had to disallow a few because, quite frankly, they were lousy. I think he got about 55 on his second attempt. WELL...he still wasn't happy and threatened to have another go. Phil and I nearly passed out with laughter.
Steve Gadd (unusually) finished the competition off with a great, if not unusual, farewell party. Club Tropicana is a fun place with aqua slides, wave machines and everyone loved it. I looked great in my speedos...well you've got to have the physique to carry them off . Mr. Mellor lost the water wrestling comp and some blighter pulled his trunks down. A great night. You had to be there. Looking forward to next years World Cup which may well be in South Africa.
European Championships, Riesa, 2003
Well RUSSIA cleaned up, winning everything except the Men's Openweight title, which was won by the Big Bulgarian pictured.
We kicked off the trip with a visit to Prague. It was over an hour queueing up to get through passport control. We hadn't booked any accommodation but Mr. Mellor managed to locate a fantastic apartment for us (NOT).
Mr.Mellor insisted on going to Goldfinger's which I presumed to be a James Bond theme pub. I was quite surprised when i noticed the waitresses were wearing stockings and suspenders but imagine my horror when a girl sat herself on our table, stripped off and stuck her tits in Mr. Mellor's face. (YES!! MR. MELLOR'S FACE...I WONT MENTION WHERE SHE THEN STUCK HIS FACE BUT IT FAIR PUT ME RIGHT OFF MY FISH AND CHIP SUPPER I CAN TELL YOU). Yes, you've guessed it....the dastards had led me into a striptease establishment of ill repute. I was all for leaving but stayed, reluctantly, to maintain the team spirit and, naturally, averted my gaze from the goings on and comings off. Kev and Phil had a whale of a time but i cannot say I enjoy that type of thing (well not at the prices they were charging..Kev had a Gold Card).
Too many tourists in Prague for me now, but we managed to locate a fantastic little restaurant which I highly recommend and when I find the address card I'll give it a good mention. It was the best steak I have had for a while.
After a night in the luxurious apartment we got a tram to the train station then enjoyed a great trip on the train to Dresden and Riesa. A four hour trip and we enjoyed every minute of it...playing chess and seeing the views. Kev kept scratching his nuts for some reason or another.
The trains are brilliant: very quiet, much larger than ours and run on time.
Riesa has changed immensely in the last few years but it is still a nice clean trouble free town.
Pateman came up trumps (as usual) on the hotel front and secured four double rooms in the Hotel Der Starke in Strehla, 10 euros by taxi from the venue. The hotel was right on the River Elbe.
Here's the results........
Women:
- 65 kg 1. Lukina Ekaterina RUS
2. Müller Steffi GER
3. Novgorodtseva Elina RUS
3. Sasko Oksan UKR
5. Marzok Katharina GER
5. Boz Poala ITA
7. De Graauw Claudia NED
7. Brodal Ina Sofie NOR
- 80 kg 1. Panteleeva Svetlana RUS
2. Dvoretskaya Marina RUS
3. Schmidtsdorf Kerstin GER
3. Nugis Erge EST
5. Opsett Isa May NOR
5. Ivanova Galina BUL
7. Kreeft Evelin NED
7. Weerkamp Hannah NED
+ 80 kg 1. Kovalenko Olessia RUS
2. Kreth Britta GER
3. Keyb Ekaterina RUS
3. Van der Brink Manuel NED
5. Sang Mille EST
5. Hehemann Nicole GER
7. Kallo Gyöngyi HUN
7. Kuznetsova Viktoria EST
Open 1. Kovalenko Olessia RUS
2. Köppen Sandra GER
3. Kreth Britta GER
3. Kallo Gyöngyi HUN
5. Kuznetsova Viktoria EST
5. Keyb Ekaterina RUS
7. Oppseth Ina May NOR
7. De Graauw Claudia NED
Team 1. Russia
2. Germany
3. Hungary
3. Estonia
Men:
- 85 kg 1. Kurinnoy Igor RUS
2. Gutsaev Alan RUS
3. Tykhenko Vitaly UKR
3. Georgiev Stilian BUL
5. Schmidt-Düwiger Peer GER
5. Rajamäki Tomi FIN
7. Rozum Marcin POL
7. Brandauer Rupert AUT
- 115 kg 1. Tsallagov David RUS
2. Mongouch Aias RUS
3. Paczkow Marek POL
3. Poczta Marek POL
5. Zjurov Todor BUL
5. Grams Eduard GER
7. Major Gyula HUN
7. Klanyi Janos HUN
+ 115 kg 1. Karaev Alan RUS
2. Mildzikhov Iouri RUS
3. Stoyanov Petar BUL
3. Paczkow Robert POL
5. Libor Dezsö HUN
5. Otzetarov Georgi BUL
7. Toth Barnabas HUN
7. Brümmer Jörg GER
Open 1. Stoyanov Petar BUL
2. Mildzikhov Iouri RUS
3. Jaracz Jacek POL
3. Poriz Jaroslav CZE
5. Poriz Pavel CZE
5. Otzetarov Georgi BUL
7. Toth Barnabas HUN
7. Ounapuu Madis EST
Team 1. Russia
2. Bulgaria
3. Hungary
3. Germany
October, 2003
Well maybe it was the last days of September........
The' BATTLE OF THE TOWNS' basho took place at PIRELLI.
Results as follows:
1st. Derby 2nd. Burton 3rd. Wolverhampton 4th Nottingham 5th Doncaster
British team of Pateman, Emslie, Laing and Mellor travel to Riesa on the last day of September via Prague. BMIBABY (going) and RYANAIR(coming back) will be taking the full weight of the team...its a good job Kim "CHUBBY" Humphriss isn't going as we dont like having to pay for three seats for one person.
September, 2003
Big Jackie Bates won the British Armwrestling Championships in fine style beating the Junior European Champion in the final. Big Jackie, at a finely tuned 20 stones and two pounds, was just too powerful and had trained hard for the event.
August, 2003
We are busy training for the European Championships in Reisa, first weekend in October. The Sumo World Cup is also on the agenda and this will be the last weekend in October.
July, 2003
We are in big danger of losing our full time training facility as Pirelli will be selling the land to a football club for big bucks. Currently trying to negotiate with the council for the purchase of some premises.
May, 2003
Young Chantal Freebury, who trains with Sumo just to keep in shape, was featured in The Daily Telegraph in an article showing the healthy benefits of doing sumo exercise. Chantal certainly is in good shape and benefitted immensely from the experience of being interview by a serious national newspaper.
April, 2003
Big Jackie Bates is currently training very hard for the World Championships in Moscow. She is rapidly building up an extremely good reputaion in the media as a spokesperson for Women, not just BIG women but ALL women. Following a recent TV documentary in which she showed that the bigger woman can get involved in sport no matter what her age, we received many emails saying that she was an inspiration to others.
March, 2003
Following recent good performances, Toby Tollan, Chris Freebury and Davey McNeil have been promoted. McNeil won our latest lightweight competition.
Phil Laing is training very hard and is beating everybody in training.
February, 2003
Jackie Bates is currently being filmed as part of a documentary for ITV with a working title of "Big Women". She has just won the Northern Masters Weightlifting Championships and broke British records in the process.
Great Britain will participate in the Dutch Open, the Hungarian Open, the Euro Championships and the World Championships, thereby maintaining a presence on the World Sumo scene.
December 2002
The Polish federation hosted the World Championships and it was a good event, although Wroclaw proved a difficult place to get to for some countries. Japan did not fare too well in the individual events, but did well in the Team events. Kevan Mellor was selected to officiate in the Championships and, as usual, his judgement was honest and fair.
October 2002
Russia hosted the European Championships and it has to be said that these were one of the greatest championships ever held anywhere in the World. The level of competition was staggering with some of the greatest fights I have ever witnessed. The quality and quantity of the food was out of this world (I had to pinch myself to make sure I hadn't died and gone to heaven). The entertainment was worth the trip alone. WELL DONE RUSSIA!!!!!!!!!!
This was definately G R E A T for World Sumo.
July , 2002
Matthew Tollan and "Scotch" Davey have received a grade of 3rd Kyu after completing a Sumo course. Lawrence Pearson was promoted to 2nd Kyu. All three wrestlers showed a good fighting spirit. Looks like Mark Brown of Scotland will be out for a few months with a knee injury. Phil Laing has been training hard and this next year will be a force to be reckoned with.
June 29th, 2002
Britain have begun their 2002 campaign in fine style!!! Phil Laing
won Silver medals in both the Heavyweight and Openweight categories in the Dutch
Open in Arnhem.
Scotland's Mark Brown won a Bronze medal in the Heavyweights.
The Brits secured Third place in the team event.
It was a very long day because the Junior Europeans took place first.The juniors were excellent and in a few years will be pushing the Japanese very hard indeed!
Kevan Mellor did an excellent job officiating. He is truly representative of Britain's image of fair play.
For the first time, in Holland, we decided to hire a car. Avis did us no favours. It was supposed to be £54 with a chance of an airport supplement. Well the airport supplement turned out to be 50 per cent more, so we will not be using Avis again. We opted for the full CDW and two days car hire worked out at over £100. BE CAREFUL OF AVIS AIRPORT SUPPLEMENTS and do not pay for the petrol in advance.
The Dutch roads are brilliant and we had no problems getting to Arnhem especially with the superb driving skills of Steve who got his backside kicked at the actual event. Losing two and a half kilo overnight to make the -115 kg class didn't help much..
Mark Brown fought superbly but succumbed to a knee injury and had to pull out of the event, otherwise he would have been a force to be reckoned with in the Openweight category.. Strongman, Phil Laing, received a smack in the face in his first fight and received some comforting words from Kev...."you'll get used to it after a while". Phil's a naturally strong man who can dead lift over 300 KG and will get used to the rigours of Sumo.
2002
We begin our campaign for honours this year at the end of June in Arnhem, Holland. New boys, Phil Laing and Mark from Scotland will be making their debuts. Six sumotori should compete in the event.
After this tourni, our next foray into Europe will be the Hungarian Open in July.
Jackie Bates has received a lot of publicity recently as currently she is our only female wrestler. Hopefully this situation will change this year and we can get more girls interested.
Kevan Mellor will be competing in the World Judo Masters Championships in Northern Ireland. Kevan will continue his fine work officiating in European Sumo Competitions this year.
2001
10/14th October, Guernsey
Steve Pateman and Kim Humphriss will be in Guernsey, in the Channel Islands, at the invitation of Mr. Alun Williams of the State Education Department to teach Sumo as part of their Family Learning Week. The Sumo is being sponsored by NRG International, a huge multi-national business with a base in Guernsey. I am assured the youngsters are all looking forward to the experience and lets hope they take it easy on us!!!!!!
November, Pontefract, West Yorkshire
The well renowned Ackworth School has asked us to run a few workshops for them. We will teach them about Japan, the old and the new, whilst showing the students some Sumo. This will mean that I will be thrown all over the place by all and sundry....and I have not recovered from the last Public School outing!
8/9th September, European Sumo Championships
Steve Pateman, Kevin Emslie, Kim Humphriss and Jackie Bates competed in Arnhem. Emslie turned in the best performance with several good victories including beating the current World Silver Medallist. He was beat eventually by a very good Russian.
The Russians were amazing and, for my money, are amongst the best in the world, especially in the U115 category.
The Germans ( average weight 190 KG) beat the Brits 3-0 and we expected to be in the repercharge as the Germans always make the last 4. In one of the biggest upsets of all time, Hungary (average weight 115 KG) upset the applecart by beating the Germans 2-1.
Hungary went on to beat Georgia in an extremely controversial final. To cut a long story short the Georgians lost the collective referees decision and decided not to be present at the medal ceremony. The powers that be within the ISF decided offiicially not to award a second place. My own personal opinion is that, when all said and done, the Georgians worked hard to make the final and deserved second place. Their behaviour should have been punished in another way......suspension? fine? All fighters get worked up before they fight.......it takes a lot of nerve just to step on the Dohyo, especially when you have to compete against some of the toughest men in the World. Afterwards you can be overcome by the emotion of it all and say or do things that are not normally part of your behaviour. The outcome of many of the fights is often very close and it can be extremely difficult to decide who the winner is. There will always be controversy.....and perhaps the sport is better for it.
The Hungarian team are to be congratulated. They used an 85 KG fighter, the U115 rikishi who beat me in the individual event, and just one true heavyweight. The U85 fighter was, for me, the player of the tournament. His speed, strength and determination were incredible. This just goes to show that you do not have to be massive to be good at Sumo.
Once again Great Britain's Kevan Mellor is to be congratulated on his totally impartial judging. He was head judge for some of the finals and carried out his duties with aplomb. I think this was his third European Championships and he has qualified to officiate at World Championships. A credit to Great Britain.
The superbly organised Norwegian team attended in numbers. They are one country who can genuinely field two strong teams with heavy guys. Their Under 85 fighter, Martin, did amazingly well to make the final. He won a world bronze a few years ago, I believe, and he had trained hard for this competition and deserved his Silver medal in this tough category.
After the competition there was a fancy dress party and this was won by Steve Gadd who was fantastic as Joe Walker, the cockney spiv from the TV series 'Dads Army'.
Sumo Training...
The Sumo training has moved to the Pirelli Sports and Social Club (judo section) in Burton.Training takes place on Sunday mornings from about 10.30. Anyone is welcome.
August 24th 2001
Steve Pateman, 3rd Dan Sumo, placed second in the British Armwrestling Championships held in Preston. He reached the final of both the left and the right arm in the Openweight category.
Pure, brute strength carried him through but eventually he lost to the technique of the current European Champion.
October 2001, Livingston(between Glasgow and Edinburgh)
Two members of the BSF will be giving a sumo demo.
September 15th, Rugby Japan 2001 festival
In the heart of Rugby wrestlers from the BSF will be giving a Sumo demonstration.
Saturday, June 30th 2001 and the World Masters Judo
Kevan Mellor (Vice President BSF) won a bronze medal in Phoenix, Arizona. Kevan trained hard for the event and went out there as strong as any 83 kg fighter could be. His grip strength is awesome and since this was his first competition in about 14 years it was a good result.
Kim Humphriss (former BSF Heavyweight champion and 2nd Dan) won the Silver medal in the superheavies. At 155 kg Kim is a big guy and difficult to shift. In the past he has been extremely fit....deceptively so. He was not in tip top condition when he left England but his strength lay in the fact that he has competed in top level Sumo recently and this competition experience stood him in good stead. He wasn't phased by the event.
Lee Carter fought superbly and won his first two fights with Ippon in spectacular style. He narrowly missed out on the bronze losing to the Hungarian, Kovaks. A good performance and fifth place.
Well done lads and keep training for next years Worlds in Northern Ireland.
SIMON SMITH, of Lancaster, fought superbly in the World Police and Fireman Games held in the USA. He beat some tough opposition to win a well deserved Bronze. Simon is ranked number 1 superheavyweight Judo fighter for the year 2001 in Great Britain. He has been plagued by a knee injury for a few years now but has been a member of two medal winning teams in the Euro Sumo Championships.
Saturday, May 12th 2001 and the Dutch Open
Kim Humphriss and Steve Pateman fought in the 'Dutch'. They flew into Amsterdam with British Midland who cannot be faulted. Luckily we managed to get a reduced rate on the air fares(THANKS!). We found the last hotel room in Amsterdam at well over £100 for the one night (and people moan when we have to charge for demonstrations!). At one time it looked as if we might have to sleep rough.
Kevan Mellor made sure the boys didn't do anything he would have, and the next morning we caught the train to Arnhem, 1 hr up the line.
To cut a long story short, the boys were beaten in the individual event but beat Holland (the home country) in the team event 2-1. Brilliant! We battled against Norway for the third place but they were too stong for the Brits. So we ended up in fourth place.
Kevan Mellor and the rest of the referees did a superb job....as they always do in Holland.
We stayed in the Olympic Sports training centre at Papandal ( about £90 for two rooms).Nice place. On the Sunday we travelled up to the Hague and caught the tram to Scheveninen, a nice seaside resort. We found a horrid place to sleep (£75). The weather was out of this world and the beach was packed. The sea was ice cold but Mellor (up to his ankles) and Pateman (the only person out of about 100,000 to actually swim) braved the water. Legs were completely numb after about two minutes.
Flew back on the Monday after a brief visit to Leiden. Looking forward to the Euro Championships in Arnhem in September.
Woodbridge School, May 3rd 2001
Big Billy Buckley and Steve Pateman were made more than welcome by everybody at the fabulous Woodbridge School in Suffolk. The boys ran 4 workshops and its estimated that Steve had over 200 fights and lost the lot to the students and the very game staff.
Well, we have had plenty of people contact us regarding taking up the sport. Unfortunately nobody has actually had the wherewithall to turn up for a training session! It seems that talking about doing SUMO is about as far as most people are prepared to go. WE DO NOT BITE! DO NOT BE AFRAID! GET OFF YOUR BACKSIDES, TURN THE TV OFF AND GIVE IT A GO!
Some of you may have seen us on NOW! Sport the internet TV channel. It was an enjoyable day and the fee will be used to pay the membership to the ESU for 2001. A big thanks to Bernadette Morley and everyone at NOW(Network Of the World), part of the Trans World International group.......who gave good coverage on Channel 4 (UK) of the World Sumo Champs from Brazil. THANKYOU
The first official World Championships for women will be at Aomori in October. There have been previous competitions for women and this year the Japanese have very kindly said that they will give financial support to countries and this will ensure that most countries send a full team.
The British will compete in Holland this year in the European Championships(September). The Dutch have a very good structure under the Presidency of Stephen Gadd and have always had a good rapport with the Brits. Hopefully we will also travel to Norway to compete in the Scandinavian Open.
The 2001 World Championships will be held in Aomori, Japan. The 2002 Championships will be held in Poland and 2003 will see Russia hosting the event.
Britain did not win any medals in the recent European Championships in Poland. The trip was enjoyed by the management team of Mellor, Carter and Williamson and by the three Rikishi: Bates, Pateman and Scholes.
Mr Kevan Mellor became the second Briton - following in the footsteps of Mr. Syd Hoare - to officiate at the Championships. He won praise for his totally honest, non partisan observations and has been invited to 'referee' at continental events next year.
Krakow is a wonderful city. The people are extremely civilised with absolutely no sign of any aggression whatsoever. I think this suprised us all. It seems to be a family orientated environment
The restaurants were very good value. Sirloin steak with all the trimmings for less than a fiver. The taxi rides were also good value with nobody trying to rip us off.
The Poles won the team title but my main memory is of the 85 KG Swiss wrestler, Eric Haldi, beating opponents weighing twice as much . The Norwegians also fought superbly. As usual the Japanese gave a superb display of all Sumo skills.
Derby's Steve Pateman competed in the 2000 Sao Paulo World Championships. He beat a good Paraguayan in the second round but lost to the Japanese in the next. The Japanese then lost to the Russian so this put Pateman out of the repercharge.
Japan lost the team event final to Germany. The Germans were just too big for the Orientals who were intimidated by the size. Mind you, Scheibler at about 30 stone and nearly 7 foot would intimidate a bull elephant.
Once again Norway picked up a few good medals with Hans Borg having improved immensely to pick up a bronze medal. He even beat the awesome former world champion, Brummer in the team event. Finland also picked up a couple of medals with Rajamaki winning silver to the German,Scmidt-Duwiger in the lightweight category.
The competition was superbly organised by the Brazilians and the Japanese (ISF).